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Technologies and Trends in Education

Technology and Trends in Education
Social Media in Education “Current and Future Trends in Technology and Trends”
Anuradha Sarn PIDP 3240 August 3rd, 2012

In this article The Current and Future Trends in Technology and Trends, the writer Philip Molebash explains quiet interestingly how the current Technology and Trends plays a huge role in education, he analyses the future of education using current Technology Trends. In order to understand today’s Technology and Trends, it helps to take a look at how it has developed over the years. Even in education, computers have a long history. For example the Internet, it is a based tool for sharing information and chatting on the computer. Computers have become the main source for today’s education and social media. The author continues to elaborate on how using such a magnificent technology teachers can change the way they teach. Some teachers can use technology in ‘teacher-centered’ ways….on the other hand, some teachers use technology to support more student-centered approaches to instruct, so that students can conduct their own scientific inquiries and engage in collaborative activities while the teacher assumes the role of facilitator or coach. As a student myself I believe that it is very important to understand the impact social media has in the education field, we must ask ourselves where are these trends leading us, and how might they impact education? One can hardly even begin to think what these computers will do in the next ten years or more. The Internet is growing and changing every day, one must keep in mind that there are countless ways technology might develop during the next several decades. Knowing exactly what these developments will be or where will they lead us is not only impossible, it is unimportant. It is the recognition of what is possible that educators must consider

Technology and Education: Current and Future Trends, INDUS Training and Research Institute, Philip Molebash

This article the authors, David J. Staley and Dennis A. Trinkle identifies ten fissures in the landscape of education that are creating areas of potentially tectonic change. They talk about how the increasing differential of higher education is used in the business aspect and in the education aspect, how the training programs of large corporation could present an attractive alternative for many students.One can only imagine a day when students will bypass traditional higher education institutions to go to work directly for larger companies like McDonald’s and avail themselves of the degree-granting training programs provided there. I would agree that if the employment landscape of higher education has shifted for the coming decades, a quality educational experience need not suffer, Social Media can play a critical role in helping new models of education and instruction reach even higher levels of outcome. The writers continue to explain the ‘new invisible college’ whereby they observe the practice of todays students using the network, facilitated through information technology rather than through letters, where individual learners act as nodes in a complex system. The system represented by the new invisible college is more international in scope and scale and is outside the direct funding and control of any national organization.
I found this article very informative and would recommend it my fellow students. Higher education is undergoing a serious transformation because of the direct and indirect impact of the global trends. In developing a social media type learning environment and a blog for discussions, it can provide students a very valuable tool in education and it should be utilized. The use of technology in education has been steadily growing due to the increase in nature of modern technology, specifically computers, the use of technology in the classroom has increased tremendously and will continue to do so and we as educators should support it.

The Changing Landscape of Higher Education By David J. Staley and Dennis A. Trinkle, Published on February 7, 2010

The blog itself is a tool used by many students to post educational information on the website so that they may share their information with other students. Students are also able to comment on each other’s work and also gain knowledge from other bloggers. The management of the blog is very important, as this requires the student to obtain blog management techniques. The instructors have to be aware and facilitate a safe learning environment for the students. Blogging software creates new ways for groups of people to collaborate and exchange information while reducing the importance of the computer itself as an information delivery platform.
The Web 2.0 is a category of new Internet tools and technologies around the idea that the people who consume media, access the Internet, and use the Web shouldn’t passively absorb what’s available, rather they should be active contributors, helping customize media and technology for their own use. Web 2.0 represents an important shift in the way digital information is created, shared, stored, distributed, and manipulated. In the years ahead, it will have a significant impact in the way businesses use both the Internet and enterprise level applications. Web 2.0 pushes computing power off the desktop and onto the Internet, which means less time and money spend on computer software administration. In general the Web 2.0 tools are also less expensive than traditional software.
The Web 2.0 application can be accessed from anywhere it is a simple application which solves specific problems. Value lies in the content, not the software used to display the content. Data can be readily shared. Social tools encourage people to create, collaborate, edit, categorize, exchange and promote information. Developing a social learning environment and a discussion form, blogs can allow students to make education not only fun but also sets the students up to have conversations that can be read by other groups of students and instructors.

Design Patterns and Business Models for the next Generation of Software. Links O’Reilly Spreading the knowledge of innovations, Web 2.0 O’Reilly Media